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Mark Joseph Stern

@mjsdc.bsky.social
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  1. 1

    Donald Trump came one vote away from getting the Supreme Court to say that the 14th Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented and temporary immigrants, a view held only by fringe far-right nativists until VERY recently. This is shocking. I am stunned.

    5,106 1,369
    Jun 30, 2026
  2. 2

    Reply to @mjsdc.bsky.social

    Slaughter is an earthquake: SCOTUS has overturned a 90-year-old precedent that facilitated much of modern governance by granting many agencies meaningful independence from the president. Now SCOTUS crushes that independence ... for seemingly every agency except the Federal Reserve.

    3,133 1,287
    Jun 29, 2026
  3. 3

    Reply to @mjsdc.bsky.social

    I am stunned that the constitutional question was so close. I thought it would be 6–3 or 7–2. It is profoundly disturbing that four justices would allow either the president or Congress to rewrite the plain text of the 14th Amendment. This is obviously a good outcome, but the margin is alarming.

    4,452 1,120
    Jun 30, 2026
  4. 4

    Interesting choice by NYT to publish an op-ed bemoaning America’s projected population decline by a guy who’s massively racist against immigrants and compares IVF to “Nazi eugenics.”

    The “pronatalists” only want more of a very specific kind of person in this country. It gives the game away.

    The Population Forecasts Are Grim. Theyre Still Too Optimistic. By Lyman Stone It's difficult to articulate the extent to which Somalian immigrants are a *unique* problem. Other immigrant groups may not always have stellar outcomes, but there are almost none who as persistently have the absolute worst outcomes in every country they move to as Somalians. FWIW I think attacking IVF really is a massively losing political position, and I say that as someone with serious moral concerns around IVF. I think if you must attack IVF, you would argue against discarding embryos as a form of Nazi eugenics, not on the basis of personhood.
    4,212 987
    Jul 11, 2026
  5. 5

    Tomorrow at SCOTUS is gonna be like:

    a. Trans athletes get screwed
    b. Another campaign finance law is gutted
    c. Birthright citizenship is upheld

    ... and we're all supposed to focus on (c) and forget about all the atrocious decisions that preceded it. Let's not, please!

    4,351 932
    Jun 29, 2026
  6. 6

    Again. This is the author. What are we doing here?

    The Somali community is a scourge on the republic. I have been saying this for years. The rampant fraud is just icing on the cake. We should indeed be reviewing if Somalis e.g. lied on naturalization forms, and deport any with deportable offenses.
    New York Times Opinion @nytopinion.nytimes.com
    “Birthrates have fallen almost continuously for nearly 20 years,” Lyman Stone writes. “They have fallen through good economies and bad, through Republican administrations and Democratic ones, through every tax credit and child-care subsidy.”
    Opinion | The Population Forecasts Are Grim. They’re Still Too Optimistic.
    America is not prepared for population decline.
    4,471 921
    Jul 11, 2026
  7. 7

    Just canceled my DashPass and sent this email to DoorDash. I encourage you to do the same if you support D.C. home rule. [email protected] and [email protected]

    Hello, I’m writing to let you know that I just canceled my DashPass because of DoorDash’s disgraceful campaign against D.C. home rule. DoorDash is urging Congress to nullify a new D.C. law imposing a 20 percent tax on food-delivery services—not merely by overturning that law, but by prohibiting the District from enacting any new tax without prior congressional approval. That is an extraordinarily sweeping assault on D.C.’s right to govern itself and an odious insult to the District’s residents. I am especially disgusted by DoorDash’s public claim that it is somehow defending D.C. residents while actively seeking to strip us of our right to govern ourselves through our own democratically elected lawmakers. Please do not pretend that disenfranchising District residents is an act undertaken on our behalf. I intend to publicize DoorDash’s attack on home rule as widely as possible and urge everyone I know to boycott the company. Shame on you.
    2,669 808
    Jul 22, 2026
  8. 8

    Iconic line from @stevevladeck.bsky.social here in response to Will Baude’s SCOTUS boosterism www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/o...

    Baude: I agree that we are in unprecedented times, maybe even a constitutional crisis, but if we survive it, the court deserves no small share of the credit. Vladeck: Exactly the same credit we might give to the arsonist who shows up with a fire extinguisher.
    3,269 691
    Jul 1, 2026
  9. 9

    We have Slaughter and Cook. By a 6–3 vote, SCOTUS overturns Humphrey's Executor and lets Trump fire heads of independent agencies. But by a 5–4 vote, it refuses to let him fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve.

    www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

    www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

    1,341 505
    Jun 29, 2026
  10. 10

    The Supreme Court strikes down Trump's attack on birthright citizenship. By a 5–4 vote, it holds that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to children born of unauthorized and temporary immigrants. Roberts and Barrett join the three liberals. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

    1,866 498
    Jun 30, 2026
  11. 11

    I’ll put a finer point on it: The actual solution to our birth rate “problem” is substantially increasing immigration. Lyman Stone is a virulent racist and nativist bigot, so he rejects or ignores this solution in favor of pushing heterosexual Christian couples to reproduce more. That’s my response.

    So far the Bluesky response to my NYT op Ed has been: 1) Lyman has bad tweets 2) cancel Lyman 3) it's good birth rates are falling 4) nobody should have kids Notably missing as a response: Any evidence my thesis is wrong.
    Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social
    Again. This is the author. What are we doing here?
    The Somali community is a scourge on the republic. I have been saying this for years. The rampant fraud is just icing on the cake. We should indeed be reviewing if Somalis e.g. lied on naturalization forms, and deport any with deportable offenses.
    3,462 471
    Jul 12, 2026
  12. 12

    Reply to @mjsdc.bsky.social

    Gift link with no paywall because everybody needs to read this one after the June we just had slate.com/news-and-pol...

    A Sitting Judge Just Delivered the Most Scathing Critique of This Supreme Court Term
    The Supreme Court has veered so far off track that even the harshest language can feel inadequate to capture the damage wrought by its most recent term.
    889 412
    Jul 17, 2026
  13. 13

    The Supreme Court's first opinion is Watson v. RNC. By a 5–4 vote, the Supreme Court UPHOLDS state laws that allow the counting of mail ballots that are sent by Election Day but arrive shortly thereafter. Roberts and Barrett join the liberals. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

    JUSTICE BARRETT delivered the opinion of the Court. Three federal statutes set the day for the election of Representatives, Senators, and the President. A Mississippi law permits the counting of absentee ballots postmarked by election day but received up to five days later. We must decide whether the federal election-day statutes preempt Mississippi’s law. They do not.
    1,525 398
    Jun 29, 2026
  14. 14

    Reply to @mjsdc.bsky.social

    The outcome is thus:

    5–4 that the Constitution protects birthright citizenship for the children of all immigrants.

    6–3 that Trump's order is unlawful (because Kavanaugh says it violates a statute, NOT the 14th Amendment.) www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

    1,121 381
    Jun 30, 2026
  15. 15

    Reply to @mjsdc.bsky.social

    The supermajority's decision in NRSC allows wealthy donors to circumvent limits on contributions to individual candidates by donating much larger sums to political parties, which can now spend the money in direct coordination with specific candidates. An open invitation for quid pro quo corruption.

    997 351
    Jun 30, 2026
  16. 16

    The Supreme Court's second opinion is NRSC v. FEC. By a 6–3 vote, the court guts another campaign finance statute and overturns a 2001 precedent that upheld restrictions on political parties' coordinated expenditures with candidates. The three liberals dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

    780 301
    Jun 30, 2026
  17. 17

    Went to the Great American State Fair out of morbid curiosity. It’s not a total disaster, just ramshackle and kind of boring. The Temu arch is an embarrassment, as are all the weird MAGA cult displays (including a mock-up Trump passport). People working the event were nice and I felt bad for them.

    Hideous plaster Trump arch Hideous Trump passport
    1,674 281
    Jun 27, 2026
  18. 18

    The Supreme Court will NOT reconsider a grant of qualified immunity to prison guards who pepper sprayed an inmate on a hunger strike then stripped him naked and locked him in a freezing cold cell for 23 hours. The three liberals dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

    When Smith was first placed in the cell around noon, Van Lanen told Smith that Smith could request a shower any time and that he would come back to discuss “‘clothing and stuff,’” but he never returned. Ibid. Three and a half hours later, Smith requested clothing, bedding, and a mattress from Lieutenant Timothy Retzlaff and asked to be moved to a warmer cell given the cold. Retzlaff said he would check with Van Lanen. Twelve additional hours went by with no word from Van Lanen or Retzlaff. Then, around 3 o’clock in the morning, a different officer told Smith that if he submitted to future wellness checks, he could have a smock, but that otherwise, “he would remain naked and cold.” Ibid. Smith declined. Another eight hours came and went without any word from Van Lanen or Retzlaff. Smith remained naked and frigid overnight as the temperature dropped below freezing to 25 degrees. After 23 hours, prison staff removed Smith from the cell. Smith later stated that he stayed on his feet for most of those 23 hours because it was too painful to sit, lie down, or sleep.
    641 271
    Jun 29, 2026
  19. 19

    A lie. Slaughter allows Trump to purge the heads of the MSPB and Office of Special Counsel, which protect civil servants from unlawful firings. When those agencies are paralyzed or corrupted, civil servants’ job protections become worthless. Thomas and Barrett endorsed this outcome just last month.

    This is sloppy and highly misleading. It addresses only principal officers. Even Chief Justice Taft, in Myers, accepted that the appointment of inferior officers can be vested in the department heads and they can be granted removal protections, creating the civil service. This decision doesn't even come close to touching that issue. Barb McQuade & @BarbMcQua...•20h The Slaughter case, overturning precedent, returns us to a spoils system where a president can "clean house" every four years, destroying our professional, independent civil service.
    784 246
    Jun 30, 2026
  20. 20

    John Roberts handing down Slaughter and Cook together felt like a weird domination ritual in which he gets to flaunt his power to issue irreconcilable rulings that perfectly track his partisan preferences and we all just to take it because, really, who's gonna stop him? slate.com/news-and-pol...

    On Monday, the Supreme Court banished any doubt that it has claimed absolute authority to reshape the federal government as it sees fit. Its decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook are almost comically irreconcilable as a matter of logic: The court at once allowed the president to fire the heads of almost every independent agency while preventing him from removing a leader of the one agency it really values, the Federal Reserve. These rulings make sense only as one step in the court’s broader campaign of empowering the president—specifically this president, Donald J. Trump—to enact most of his agenda through executive action without becoming complicit in a catastrophic recession. But the biggest winner here isn’t even Trump; it’s SCOTUS itself. The court not only gets to establish sweeping new rules of American governance, but also to tweak those rules as necessary to favor presidential policies it prefers while quashing those it dislikes. Who could possibly call this a democracy?
    842 236
    Jun 29, 2026
  21. 21

    The Supreme Court's first decisions are the trans athlete cases. By a 6–3 vote, the court holds that Title IX and the equal protection clause do NOT stop states from excluding trans women and girls from female sports teams. The three liberals dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

    574 239
    Jun 30, 2026
  22. 22

    Reply to @mjsdc.bsky.social

    By far the best thing about the Great American State Fair is that DC statehood activists have infiltrated it (with official permission!) and are lobbying attendees to support their cause. I saw several MAGA tourists receiving the polite but vigorous spiel for DC statehood and it warmed my heart.

    1,996 229
    Jun 27, 2026
  23. 23

    NEW: The Supreme Court will decide whether Arizona (and potentially other states) may require proof of citizenship on state voter registration forms. A huge case, and I fear the outcome is predetermined. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

    CERTIORARI GRANTED 24-1016 RISEANDSHINE CORP. V. PEPSICO, INC. 25-159 HOFFMANN, LEONARD W., ET AL. V. WBI ENERGY TRANSMISSION, INC. 25-840 INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS, ET AL. V. FERGUSON, GOV. OF WA, ET AL. 25-842 WASSILY, TAMER S., ET AL. V. BLANCHE, ACTING ATT'Y GEN. 25-1017 REPUBLICAN NAT. COMM. V. MI FAMILIA VOTA, ET AL. The petitions for writs of certiorari are granted. 25-1223 MONTOYA PALACIOS, KEVIN I. V. LIGGINS, VERNON, ET AL. The motion of Eva Daley, et al. for leave to file a brief as amici curiae out of time is denied. The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted.
    560 237
    Jun 29, 2026
  24. 24

    Reply to @mjsdc.bsky.social

    Forgot this one. I’m curious why NYT thinks this kind of vile racism isn’t disqualifying for an op-ed writer. I imagine that if an author said something similarly vitriolic about, say, Lutherans, the NYT would face massive blowback for publishing them.

    The Somali community is a scourge on the republic. I have been saying this for years. The rampant fraud is just icing on the cake. We should indeed be reviewing if Somalis e.g. lied on naturalization forms, and deport any with deportable offenses.
    1,252 223
    Jul 11, 2026
  25. 25

    The vote on the constitutional question in the birthright citizenship case is an absolute scandal slate.com/news-and-pol...

    On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the first sentence of the 14th Amendment means exactly what it says: Birthright citizenship is the nation’s fundamental law, and Donald Trump cannot repeal it via executive order. The vote was 5–4. This outcome is, of course, a relief. But the margin is a scandal. It is nothing short of stunning that Trump came one vote away from convincing the Supreme Court to repeal the bedrock of the Reconstruction Amendments based on a brazenly partisan contortion of their text and history. A view held only by fringe, far-right nativists until very recently has secured support from four of the nine members of the court: Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. This is a shocking development that should upend all expectations that this Supreme Court can be trusted to apply the most basic constitutional guarantees when a Republican president seeks to nullify them. If a theory flatly rejected by all serious legal scholars and historians can come one vote away from success, no rights are safe. Everything is on the table.
    583 168
    Jun 30, 2026